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The Quill, a Volcano Hike on Statia

A post by Sally

On May 22nd, we started our day at 7am. We got dressed, ate breakfast, and put our shoes on. After dinghying in to the dock, we walked up the road and started walking up a dirt path on a hill to get to town. Willie loved seeing all of the goats! After walking across town, we got up to the dirt road and the hot sun started beating down on us. We walked on stopping once for a water break. We got to the trail head and shade was just ahead of us. Willie decided that under a tree with shade was the best spot to lay down. We finally got him up and it was a nice hike up with lots of shade. There were water droplets on the trees so if you got a little hot, you could just shake the tree and get a little shower of water to cool you off.

After about an hour of hiking through the forest, we arrived at a spot where we had to make a decision which way to go: up, down or around. We decided to go up—a fun hike with lots of climbing. After a steep hike up we were all rewarded by the pretty views.

At the top, we had a snack break and got refreshed with water.

Willie had fun running down the mountain, trying to catch up to Heidi, and looking for goats, and in the process nearly yanked my arm off! We hiked down a little more and got back to where the trails split. We met two people coming up from the bottom of the crater and asked them how it was. They said it was good so we decided to go down to the crater bottom—a steep, windy hike with lots of hanging vines and big trees with huge trunks. For this, we let Willie off leash. I would grab his leash and Lucy would run ahead and then I would let him go.

There were lots of signs with edible plants, so Lucy and I kept our eyes peeled for edibles! But…we couldn’t find anything. We continued down and found a huge tree and a thick rope hanging down. We all took a turn swinging on it.

We kept going down until we reached the end, where we turned around and the down turned into uphill. We started back up.

We got up the hill, back to where the trail split and took a break. We then continued down the rest of the trail, bumped into a few other cruisers, and continued back into the town. By now, at around 1pm the sun was blazing down on the pavement and we were HOT! We hurried through town while dogs barked from everywhere. We kept going down until we finally reached the beach. Willie pulled to get in the water and when he was done swimming, he dug himself a hole, for a cooling off spot. We went to the hiking office to refill our water bottles, then motored back to our boat to go swimming. We’ll be resting for the rest of the day. What a day!

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Ponce

A post by Mark

After a great week by Gilligan’s Island, we headed East to Ponce – Puerto Rico’s ‘second city’ (after San Juan).  In Puerto Rican history, San Juan was the military and industrial center while Ponce became the home of artists, poets, musicians, and other ‘free thinkers’.
To get to Ponce, we left Gilligan’s in the middle of the night so we could arrive in Ponce first thing in the morning – taking advantage of the light winds at night while we motored right into the wind.  After a quick stop at the fuel dock, we anchored in the harbor, rested a bit, and headed out for town mid-morning.  It was a long(ish), hot walk from the port to the main shopping area.  For the first time in I can’t remember how long, we went to the mall, as we needed to look for some new shoes for the girls. I hate malls – and this was a full-on mall – Sears, Macy’s, Forever 21, tons of kiosks selling iPhone covers and cheap jewelry, etc…  My dislike of malls notwithstanding, the air conditioning was really, really nice.  After the mall, we headed to the bank, a few hardware stores, and the grocery store.  Not the most exciting day ever – but not every day is…. We did, however, get a few jobs done (minus new shoes) – so it was a success.
The next day, we decided to explore the ‘old town’ via a trolly tour.  Once we got to the center of the old town, we learned that the trolly wasn’t running – the driver didn’t show up for work that day….  While that would have probably bothered me a few months ago – I pretty quickly chalked that up to being on ‘island time’ and was OK with it.  So, we headed to the tourist office, a few hotels, and a souvenir-type shop looking for guide maps, do-it-yourself walking tours, or any other way to learn about the city.  Armed with a little more information, we walked through a pedestrian arcade and got some kids shoes and other stuff at one of the many stores there. We then made our way to the Ponce history museum which provided a pretty good overview of the history of the city.  The only issue was that all of the exhibits were entirely in Spanish – so, while we learned something, we surely didn’t get the full picture. After lunch at a neat little outside eatery, went to the best ice cream ever.  Not kidding – best ever (ok, the Ferris Acres Creamery in Newtown CT is the best – but this is a very strong #2).  It was described to us a ‘Chinese ice cream’ by the guy at the tourist office – which I think just meant that the owners of the shop were Chinese (not the most progressive way to describe it, but I digress…).  Anyway, the ice cream was like a combination of the best Italian gelato and really tasty sorbet.  We all ended up getting double scoops so we could each have two different flavors.  I can’t overstate this – if you ever find yourself near Ponce PR – go to King’s Ice Cream – you will not regret it!
King’s Ice Cream
Struggling with what to do for the rest of the day, we found some information on a guided walking tour of the city.  We hemmed and hawed for a while on whether to do it (it seemed relatively expensive) – but decided to go for it.  We met our tour guide Melina outside the Parque de Bombas – the ‘must-see’ attraction in the city.  It is a shrine to the city’s firefighting history and to the heros of the great fire of January 25, 1899.
Le Parque de Bombas
Right away, we knew that we had made the right decision with the tour.  Melania was super friendly, very knowledgeable, highly energetic, and incredibly passionate about Ponce.  She had recently returned to Puerto Rico after many years abroad, and was on a mission to revive the entrepreneurial spirit of Ponce with the folks of her generation (25 to 30 ish).  Melania showed us around the city for about 2 hours – explaining its great architecture, artistic past and current renaissance, its role as the birthplace of Salsa music, and more.  It was a great tour – worth every penny.
The Murals of Ponce
Along with the great ice cream and the great tour, my favorite part of Ponce was the people.  Ponce is not a typical tourist spot – especially for non Puerto Ricans – so we stuck out like a sore thumb.  I can’t count the number of times people came up to us to welcome us to Ponce and wishing us a great time in their city.  It was amazing.  Old folks, young folks, folks somewhere in the middle – everybody was genuinely friendly and truly happy that we decided to visit their city.  It was very cool to see.
A friendly Ponce man and his dog
Well – that’s all for Ponce, as we headed out the next morning for Salinas and parts further east.
Until next time,
Mark
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Windsurfing!

Hi again –

So, we left off last outside of Gilligan’s Island – a really pretty harbor near the town of Guanica PR.  The shoreline here is all part of a protected National Forrest.  Interestingly, it is a ‘dry forrest’ – receiving an average of less than 14” of rain per year.  Because of the protected status, there are only 50 or so houses in the area – houses that were there before the formation of the Nat’l Forrest.  This all makes for a beautiful spot.
After our time dragging around the harbor, we were visited by a guy buzzing by on a windsurfer.  I talked to him a bit and learned that his name is Mike and he is visiting friends who had the windsurfers and that he’d ask his friend if we could come by and borrow one.  Later that afternoon, we swung by again and said that his friends would be happy for us to come on by and that they would give the girls lessons.
In the late afternoon / early evening, we stopped by, and sure enough, were welcomed in with open arms.  Mike and his family have been coming to his friends place for the past 20 years to visit and go windsurfing.  The friends are Gerd and Toni – a German couple who have been living in the US for the past 20 or so years.  They currently live in the Seattle area in the summers and spend the winters at their beautiful house on the water in the National Forrest here in Guanica.  Their place is amazing with a front yard that looks like a windsurfing / aquatics school.  It has a shed full of 10 to 15 windsurfing sails, 5 sea kayaks, a Sunfish sailboat, and other assorted water toys.  On the bottom level of their house are two apartments that Toni and Gerd use to house the many, many visitors they have throughout the winter (like Mike and his family).  Toni and Gerd are amazing.  They are two of the nicest, most full of life, most generous, and generally ‘good’ people I have ever met. They were busy that afternoon, and invited us to stay another day or so to take windsurfing lessons. In Gerd’s words – ‘the lessons are cheap – costs you only 60 minutes per hour’.
The next day, we did schoolwork in the morning, and went to Gerd and Toni’s in the afternoon.  There, Gerd set-up a few windsurfers and started teaching the girls how to windsurf (undoing the bad habits I had taught them).  Aside from Mike and his family (wife Denyse and 18 YO daughter Izzy), there was another couple – Petra and Torsten visiting from Germany.  Torsten helped Gerd teach – he spent time with Sally, while Gerd helped Lucy (Heidi took a day or two off – as she had a sore back from tubing and from the little bit of windsurfing we tried the day before).  I even got a chance to go out – but was limited to a pretty small area until I showed Gerd that I was competent enough to safely get myself and his windsurfer back safely (which was totally cool).  A bit of background – when I was Heidi or Lucy’s age, I got my first windsurfer and taught myself how to use it.  So, I’m somewhat competent on a board, but nobody is confusing me for an expert – as my self-taught ways are less than precise.  That being said, I ‘passed’ the initial test and was able to go out a bit further and had a great time.  The bay in Guanica is perfect for windsurfing – good wind (20 + kts) and very small waves – a great combo.  After our day of lessons, Gerd invited us to come back – as he was pretty sure that with a few days, he could turn the girls into windsurfers.  He also wanted me to come back so he could show me the right way to windsurf so I could continue to teach the girls the right way (instead of my flawed, self-taught way). We were planning to head out to the next harbor the following day – but this offer was too good to pass-up.  We ended up staying a week! Here are some good pics of us having fun.
Gerd, Toni, and the Girls
 Mark (after some lessons)
Sally and Gerd
Lucy sailing along
Heidi with Torsten and Gerd
This week was great.  It will stand out as one of the best weeks of our journey.  Not only did we learn the right way to windsurf, we made some great friends and had some great times.  One morning, Toni took us on a fantastic hike around the National Forrest.  She is a great guide – showing us interesting things we would have never noticed on our own – such as some cool blow-holes, interesting plants and flowers, and a really pretty cliff walk. Another afternoon, Gerd showed us his woodworking shop and some of the really fantastic things he has designed and built – like a really intricate, working clock, some beautiful guitars, a ukulele – and more.  We also got to know Petra and Torsten and the girls had fun making jewelry with Izzy.  It was really tough to leave – but after a week, we felt it was time to move on.  Next stop (and next post) – Ponce.
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Puerto Rico

A post by Mark

Its happened again… I’m more than a month behind on posting. Sorry again for the delay – wifi is getting harder to come by – which, is not necessarily a bad thing. We’ve also been pretty busy – all good stuff. And then our site went down… Anyway – here goes…

After our great time in the Dominican Republic – it was time to move on to Puerto Rico. As Julie explained in her post, we left the DR a bit earlier than we would have liked to take advantage of a great weather window to cross the Mona Passage. We sailed (mainly motored) for 47 hours from Luperon in the DR to Boqueron PR. Unfortunately for us, we  misread our guide book (OK – it was me) – as we thought that we could clear customs in Boqueron. Turns out, Boqueron is not a port of entry – so we had to take a 20-30 min cab ride north to Mayaquez the next day. Boqureon in a small tourist town – filled from Thursday afternoon to Sunday evening with Puerto Ricans having a great time. Monday through Thursday mid-day, however, the place is a ghost town. Of the 15 or 20 restaurants in town, maybe 4 are open during the week. Other than those 4 restaurants, the post office and a pretty poorly stocked mini-mart, there is nothing else open during the week. We arrived in Boqueron on Sunday evening – so getting a cab to go to customs on Monday morning was a challenge (no Uber here…). We eventually made our way to the marina in town – and around 9:30, the guy who runs the office arrived and called us a cab. About 20 minutes later Sammy showed up in a late-model Cadillac land ark. This thing was huge – I sat up front and Julie and the girls all fit in the back (with what looked like a bit of room to spare)! Sammy is quite the character. He’s from the Bronx and Puerto Rico – spent about half of his life in both. We had some interesting conversations and price negotiations – both filled with good chunks of misinterpretation. This would have made sense if there was a significant language barrier – but this guy spent half of his life in NYC and spoke pretty good English…. Oh well – I’ll just chalk this up to ‘he was an interesting character’. Sammy ended up driving us around for most of the day – bringing us to customs, and then to the USDA Tropical Research Center – which is like a botanical garden, as it has samples of just about every tropical plant from around the world. The mission of the center is to keep a living library of these plants and to research a handful of tropical species that could potentially be used as crops or for other beneficial ways (medicine, etc). Best of all, the place is open to the public and free to tour. It was a pretty neat place. Unforttuantely for us, it absolutely poured while we were there. Not a typical rainstorm, but a tropical one – full downpour, probably the most rain we’ve seen this entire trip. Luckily for us, we were able to find an open greenhouse and duck into it for the worst of it. It was about that time that we remembered that we had left all of the hatches and windows open on the boat – oops (more to come on that later). After the Research Center, we headed back towards the boat, stopping by the local Walgreens where we picked up the fixings for banana splits to celebrate Lucy’s birthday the next day. One problem…. No bananas – and we had just finished the last of our huge stalk from the DR a few days prior. We now had a mission for the next day – find bananas. After Walgreens, it was back to the boat. Preparing for the soggiest, we hopped on the boat to see how wet it was. Not a drop of water in it. As we later learned, the storms soak Mayaguez every day – but almost never make it to Boqueron. Good news for us.

The next day, we planned a relatively quiet day – a day at the beach. We had a lot of fun just sitting, swimming, and relaxing at the beach. That night, we went out for Lucy’s birthday dinner with friends of ours on Boreas – a couple from Quebec with a 1 yr old boy. They are super nice folks and we had a great time with them. Before we went to the restaurant, however, we swung by the minimart hoping for bananas. No luck… oh well, we’d just have to make due with ‘regular’ sundaes along with some chocolate cake that Boreas brought by for us.

The next day, we decided to rent a car and visit the world’s largest radio telescope in Arecebo – a little town about an hour and a half from Mayaguez. Another cab ride with Sammy to the car rental place, and we were off. We took the scenic route to Arecebo – and it was really neat – it had an ‘over the river and through the woods’ feel to it. We passed through some really small villages perched on beautiful mountain vistas, past some pretty waterfalls, and by a handful of fruit stands (where we got some great fresh produce). Also along the way was a park famous for its extensive caves and for containing the world’s third largest underground river. We planned to spend a few hours there – and after a few wrong turns, finally arrived. Unfortunately for us (and everybody else), the park was closed – still cleaning up from hurricane damage. The parking lot was filled with trees and other debris still needing to be cleaned up.
As as side note, we spoke to a bunch of folks about Maria. It was rough, and was it was the ‘everyday’ folks who cleared the streets, helped their neighbors, etc – no different than what happens in any storm everywhere. Another reminder that people are more similar than they are different (a common theme that has arisen on this journey).To a person, however, they all said that it wasn’t nearly as bad as the media made it out to be.   OK – back to the story…

After finding and leaving the park, we made our way to the Observatory. It was a fun ride through a series of karst hills. What are karst hills you ask? They are small mountains that look exactly like haystacks – right out of Monet painting (just green instead of hay-color). The road to Arecebo goes over and around a bunch of these hills. At the observatory, we parked near the bottom of one of these hills and started walking up to the visitors center. Along the way, there is a scale model of the Solar system – starting with a model of the sun about the size of a basketball. After a 10 or 15 minute walk up the hill, we get to the Earth – about the size of a pin head (maybe a bit larger- but not much). We later learn that the models for the outer planets (Neptune and Uranus) would be over 10 miles away – really crazy to think about the huge scale of the solar system. That was a good preview of what we were about to learn about the size and scale of what the scientists at Arecebo study. Without going totally nerdy on you all, I’ll leave it at ‘its a big universe out there’ – and there are some pretty smart folks doing a lot of interesting research about it.

After the observatory, we stopped by Taco Maker for lunch (local version of Taco Bell), and headed back to the Walmart Supercenter to re-provision – including bananas and more ice-cream. Walking into the Walmart was like walking into the middle of America. Other than the signs having the Spanish writing on top and the English below – vs the reverse on the mainland – the place looked and felt like any other mid-sized Supercenter I’ve ever visited. After Walmart, we headed back towards the rental car place and got stuck in a bunch of traffic – so much traffic that we were too late to return the car. Turned out not to be an issue – and actually worked out in our favor – as early the next morning, Julie, Heidi, and I took the car to a nearby lighthouse before I had to return it. It was a really pretty morning – very quiet and peaceful.

One thing I didn’t mention…. The prior afternoon / evening (Thursday), the beach and the park next to it got really crowded – literally hundreds of tents were popping up everywhere. Turns out, the Puerto Rico scouting jamboree was about to kick-off in Boqueron. Friday afternoon, we went into the beach and walked around. We talked to a bunch of really friendly folks – and were invited to come back that evening for a concert and other general merriment. Heidi is a Venture Scout – which is an co-ed scouting group geared towards adventure activities run by the BSA for 14-21 year olds. This is the group that she and Julie went paddling in the Boundary Waters in MN and Canada last summer (Julie is a Venture Scout leader). Anyway – the reason any of this is relevant is that we hooked up with one of the Venture Scout groups that evening and had a great time with them. I was so impressed with how mature and generous with their time these ‘kids’ were. We didn’t stay too late though – as Julie, Heidi and I had gotten up very early to go to the lighthouse and were losing steam just about the time the party was getting going.

The next morning, we went back to the beach to watch a parade to kick-off the closing ceremonies. The theme of the jamboree and the parade was ‘pirates’ – as Boqureron was a key spot in the Golden Age of Piracy. Here are some fun pics of the parade.

We stayed a few more days in Boqueron – waiting for decent weather to head East. Turns out, the trip around the southwest corner of the island – by the lighthouse we visited – can get pretty squirrelly. We left on a relatively calm morning, but still had a bumpy ride around the point. It was a short ride, and by mid-day, we were anchored by La Parquera – a small town in a peaceful anchorage. In the anchorage is a small island that houses the oceanography department of the University of Puerto Rico. Also on this island are hundreds (and probably thousands) of iguanas. Willie had fun looking at them on our walks. One highlight we tried to see was a bioluminescent bay near this anchorage. It was a dark night – great for seeing the bioluminescence, but not great for navigating our way to the bay via dinghy. It was about a mile away – and rough ride. Since one of our later stops was to a ‘better’ bioluminescent bay a week or so later, we decided to turn around when the wind and waves really started to pick up and we were having a hard time seeing the coastline in the dark. We reackon that we got at least 3/4 of the way there before we turned around. A few days later, we caught up again with Boreas who went there the night after us and said it was the greatest thing ever (more or less). Ugh – we missed out on that one.

Oh well – after a night in La Parquera, we headed to Gilligan’s Island – a tropical oasis near the town of Guanica. It is a beautiful harbor with a really pretty mangrove island in the middle. The island is a nature park – and is pretty cool. It got the name Gilligan’s island because it looks a lot the island from the show, and, apparently, one of the former rangers looked a lot like either Gilligan or the Skipper (can’t remember which).

Once we got settled into our anchor, we decided it was time to ‘dragging’ – pulling a big tube behind our dinghy. It was a lot of fun for the girls – here are some pictures.

The best, however, was yet to come! As this post has gotten to long, I’m going to stop here and will pick-up in my next one. Promise it won’t be a month.

Until then,

Mark

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DR – Some of our Experiences

Hi again –
In this post, I’ll share a few of our more unique experiences in the DR.  Here we go…
The Dirt Bike
Over this journey, we’ve made friends with a lot of boats.  Actually, we have made friends with the people on boats – but we know everybody by their boat name – i.e. we’re simply known as Love and Luck.  One of our friends is Seas Life – aka – Ryan and Sheena.  In Luperon, they rented a dirt bike for a few days to tour the area.  One of those days Ryan came by and asked me if I wanted to take a ride.  Now – I’ve been on the back of a motorcycle once in my life – and it was pretty-much terrifying.  However, the opportunity to see more of the countryside was too tempting – so I hopped on the back, and off we went.  The first 5 minutes were pretty scary, but once we got out of town, it became fun.  We went on a handful of dirt roads, through a small river, down the beach, and over a really pretty mountain pass.  We also passed a lot of modest country homes, some guys playing dominos by the side of the road, and a few herds of cows coming home from pasture for their afternoon milking.   It got a little exciting when one of the cowboys (probably 15 years old) thought it would be funny to steer his herd towards us as we passed by.  Anywhere else, I might have gotten a little upset that this kid was messing with us – but the mischevous smile that he flashed us instantaneously changed my mood and  made me smile too.  I wish I had taken a camera to share some of the great sceenery, but I’m not sure I would have been able (or willing) to release my grip on the seat handles long enough to take picutures…  All in all, it was a really fun afternoon – thanks again Ryan!
The Waterfalls
One of the ‘must do’ things around Luperon is the waterfalls. There is a series of 27 waterfalls where you climb upon side of a mountain and either jump or slide down the falls.  It was a ton of fun – here are some pics / videos of our experience.  Please excuse the watermark on the videos…  I’m using a trial version of the software to edit and convert them.
Happy folks at the waterfalls
 
 
The Dentist
As Lucy described in one of her posts, we all went to the dentist.  Here’s my take on the experience…
One of the things that draws cruisers into the DR is healthcare.  It is generally very good – and very affordable.  Doctor visits, lab work, and basic preventative and emergency care are free.  Other care – including dentist visits – are very inexpensive.  Given that, we decided that we would get our 6-month teeth cleaning while in Lupreron.  We got pretty good directions from the folks at the Puerto Blanco marina – and found the modern-looking building with a large ramp, Dominican flag and ‘tooth’ signs in the front
The Dentist Office
When we walked into the office, it looked like any other small dentist office I’ve ever been in – except that, instead of outdated magazines to help pass the time, there was a big TV showing action/adventure movies dubbed into Spanish.  While we were told that they took walk-ins, since we are a party of 5, we planned (and expected) to just make an appointment for later.  To our surprise, we were told to hold tight – as we were next.  Julie went first, and before she came back – it was my turn.  I was ledto the room – and again – it looked ‘normal’ – more or less the same as my dentist growing up in Longmeadow, MA and my most recent dentist in Wilmette, IL.  I sit down in the chair, and before I lean back into the chair, the hygienist puts the ‘dentist bib’ on me.  She then hands me a folded-up paper towel and walks out the door.  OK – this throws me a bit off – as now, I don’t know what to do with this towel.  Given that I was a bit grungy looking (it had been a while since my last good shower), I figured I should put the towel on the headrest and lean back.  I sit there for a minute or two, and the hygienist comes back to get started.  Starts off like any other cleaning – and then, she gives me another towel and has me rinse out my mouth – and I realize that the towel was for me to clean my face (oops… my family had a great laugh about this – as they all figured it out the first time).  Anyway, after a quick rinse, the hygienist puts some gel on my gums.  Oh no…. I really hope this isn’t numbing gel – as numbing gel means discomfort is on the way.  While the hygienist leaves my mouth for a minute to get a tool, I sneak a quick ‘taste’ with my tongue – and my fears were confirmed as the tip of tongue started tingling and goes numb.  Turns out the tool she was grabbing was some sort of electric scraper – and it was definitely uncomfortable – for only about 2 minutes.  The rest of the cleaning was quick and painless – until the hygienist tells me that I have 4 small cavities.  Yikes – I haven’t had a cavity inyears…. Ugh.  Looks like I’m coming back for some fillings.  Note – the uncomfortable part of the cleaning is the same procedure my first dentist in Ridgefield CT used – so I’m not implying at all that the dentist wasn’t good / modern / etc…. Also note, that uncomfortable part was why I changed dentists – turns out I’m a wimp at the dentist…
Two days later, I go back to get my fillings.  After getting a bit lost and taking a self guided tour of downtown Luperon, a guy selling fruit from a small storefront pointed me in the right direction.  I get to the office – now with a pineapple in my bag – and still a bit early, as I feared this may happen.  After a short wait in the lobby, I get into the room and confidently hold on to my paper towel as I lay back onto the chair.  The dentist starts talking to me in Spanish – to which I reply back with a blank stare.  He gets somebody from the office to translate.  ‘Raise your hand if you feel any discomfort’.  ‘No problemo’ I reply – good to know that the raised hand is the international symbol for ‘ouch’ at the dentist.  Just then, two things happen at once.  First, he fires up the drill – with the unmistakable, and universally ‘bad’ high pitched whirl.  At the same time, a rooster crows right outside the window of the room I am in.  Now – notice that I didn’t mention anything about novocaine or any other tooth numbing procedure.  That wasn’t an omission –  there wasn’t any…. So, now, I’m sitting in a chair with a dentist who I can’t understand who is about to drill into my teeth without any novocaine as a rooster crows a few feet away from me.  All that flashes thorough my mind is ‘what series of bad decisions got me to this place?’  I also reflexively raise my hand – well before he gets anywhere near my mouth.  Oh well, here goes nothing I think and drop my hand and sit tight.  Turns out to be the least painful set of fillings I have ever had.  About 5 or 6 times, the drill hit a sensitive spot – I raised my hand, the dentist reacted and pain stopped immediately.  After what seemed like only a few minutes (maybe 10 or 15), I was completely done and walking out of the office – no pain, no numbness – just feeling great.  Turned out to be the easiest set of fillings I’ve ever had.  Guess the decisions that got me to that point maybe weren’t that bad.
Bruce
As Julie mentioned in one of her posts, we’ve been following the advice of Bruce Van Sant on our trip so far.  Bruce is the author of A Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South – the ‘bible’ of traveling from Florida to the British Virgin Islands.  His advice / guidance is based on his 80,000 + miles of traveling this part of the world over many, many years.  Two interesting things about the book.  1) It works!  By following his advice, we’ve had a relatively painless trip through the “Thorny Path” – as the trip from FL to the BVI is known.  2) Bruce’s writing style is blunt.  In the book, there are two ways to do things – his way and the wrong way.  Based on point #1 – I tend to believe that he is right – but the way parts of the book are written and an unflattering picture of him on the cover of his book have garnered him the title of ‘grumpy guy’ on our boat.
Grumpy Book Cover
When we heard on the twice-weekly cruisers net that Bruce was going to be giving a talk at the local marina – we couldn’t wait to meet ‘grumpy guy’!  We got there early and saw him surrounded by a handful of other ‘fans’.  When the crowd thinned, we walked over to say hi.  He was nothing but friendly, gracious, and cordial – not a hint of grumpiness.  We had a nice conversation and got this nice photo.
Happy (and not Grumpy) Bruce and our family
He then gave a good talk – mostly a Q&A session.  While he wasn’t at all grumpy, he does has a bit of edge – and isn’t afraid to share his philosophies and opinions. After 7 months and a whole bunch of miles since casting our lines from Racine WI, I find that I have become especially aligned with his philosophy of what makes a good sailor.
Bruce spent decades sailing up and down the Caribbean – and, I think it’s safe to say, he has probably ’seen it all’ when it comes to sailing these waters.  From this experience, he has learned what works and what doesn’t.  A lot of his ‘what doesn’t’ experience came from listening to self-proclaimed ‘heroes of the open seas’ telling tales of how they overcame completely unexpected foul weather and used their tremendous sailing skills to weather the storm (both literally and figuratively).  These guys (always guys) didn’t know that 9 times out of 10, their ‘completely unexpected’ weather was actually rather likely given the current and longer-range forecasts.  They just never bothered to check, because, in their minds, they were great sailors who can handle any conditions.  So, while these guys would call themselves great sailors, Bruce doesn’t agree.  In his talk,  he proclaimed this several times that these guys were ‘losers’ – partially for pretty good comic effect, and partially because I think he believes it.  His philosophy (and one I’ve adopted) is that the true test of seamanship isn’t how well you can get yourself out of trouble, but rather, how well you can put yourself in the right position to avoid trouble. (Note, this doesn’t apply to professional delivery captains, Coast Guard and Navy sailors, etc – just ’normal folks’ like us).
In theory, this is easy to do – you just wait until you get a good weather window before you move to the next port (which is pretty much what we’ve been doing).  In practice, however, for us this means that we can’t stay in some places as long as we’d prefer – like how we had to leave the DR early and missed seeing some friends.  It also means that we have to bypass other spots we’d like to see (i.e. Samana – also in the DR).  And sometimes it means that we have to stay some places longer than we’d like.  While these inconveniences seem difficult at the time, they are a lot better than getting stuck in ‘avoidable’ nasty weather.  Now, unpredictable things can and do happen, and with the right attitude, those situations become adventures. It’s another thing, however, to find yourself in an uncomfortable spot that you could have easily avoided.  Those situations aren’t adventures – those make you feel like a loser.  Luckily – we’ve kept those to a minimum…
These were just a few of our fun and interesting experiences in Luperon.  I could keep going and going – but I’m already a few weeks and a bunch more experiences behind… so time to move on.
Until next time,
Mark
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We’re back!

Hi all… For the past few weeks, our site has been down due to a malware attack on it. After many frustrating hours with various helpdesks, we’re back up and running – thank goodness!
We’re currently in Dominica – will be updating old posts as we can and have decent wifi.

Thanks – more to come!